Debian linux installation - hdd booted

From NAS-2000.org

Some people may find it useful to have an operating system on their NAS, which is independent from the firmware supplied by this site or RaidSonic.
It is possible to install a fully working debian linux on the NAS, which boots directly from disk and behaves like a normal linux system without a graphical user interface.

I tried to do a step-by-step guide, but it's currently too complex. The following how-to is based on a prepared debian etch disk image, available at my site (the link is in the text) and an initrd-image which has to be replaced by a part of the original firmware.
This disk image was built out of a debootstrap process with a lot of modifications. But at last - you can use it like a normal linux system, even with a complete build environment (apt-get install build-essential).

Please note, that modifying the flash contents and anything on the hdd can lead in unexpected results. Everything that follows should only be done by experts. If you cannot understand one single step I describe then forget about having Debian on your NAS.

a RaidSonic NAS 1000 (NAS 2000 is untested!) with Firmware 2.x and above

every single flash image of the original firmware (don't blame me, if you are unable to restore the previous system)

a serial connection from NAS to your PC (you really need it!) and a little bit experience with terminal emulation programs (Hyper Terminal, minicom) (Be careful! It is not recommended by the author of this Howto to use this way!)

a functional network connection

a tftp server which has been set up

maybe an unused hard disk that you will use instead of your big hard disk, this will avoid that you loose any data

The power button of the NAS triggers an event, and sends a notification to the OS, thus letting it shut down. Unfortunately, this notification is not processed in Debian. After approx. 30 seconds, the internal hardware shuts itself off automatically, regardless whether the OS was cleanly shut down or not (in case the OS crashed) - possibly leading to data corruption!

In order to use the power button properly, you'll have to install the power daemon:

I used the above explanation and files practically without any change on a Smartdisk SOHO NAS (for a while also sold by Verbatim) - a not documented device which uses more or less identical vendor firmware and is technically extremely similar. The only minor (but crucial) deviation was a different Ramdisk location in flash - instead of 0x701A0000 my ramdisk is located at 0x701C0000. The remainder is identical. I did not choose to install a serial port but logged in via network into redboot. This worked fine. I was aware of the risks, but had decided that my soldering skills are unlikely to be up to scratch.

There will be no Debian Lenny Image unless someone is able to build a more recent kernel for this hardware. Lenny refuses to bootstrap on the NAS complaining about the old kernel.

-> There seems to be a way to do the installation without using a serial connection. Do the steps written above. Let your NAS boot the Debian (takes some time), remove the RSA key from previous installations (~/.ssh/known_hosts) and now you can login as root using ssh.
NOTE: This was done by a user and described in Forum and its not verified up to now. see: [1]